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unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Speak Louder Cremesheen Lipstick

March 12th, 2012 by Karen 36 Comments

MAC Speak Louder Cremesheen Lipstick

Let’s say you’ve already squirreled away some of MAC’s classic pink lipsticks (like Girl About Town) but still feel the urge to wear a slightly different pink this spring. What do you do?

I’m glad you asked! 🙂 I might have just the thing.

MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Speak Louder ($14.50) does pink by way of blue. Part of the permanent collection, it’s a blue-based pink lipstick with hints of reddish orange.

It’s bright, for sure, but the poppy/reddish-orange undertones dial it back a bit, at least compared to full-tilt fuchsias and pinks like Impassioned, or Force of Love, from the new Chenman collection.

For me, that makes it a little easier to wear than many of its punchier pink counterparts.

Speak Louder and I hadn’t been on a play date in a while when I pulled it out after my chat with Bobbi Brown last week. On the call, Bobbi suggested swapping spring’s bolder neon lip colors for something a little quieter (but far from silent), like a bright pink lipstick, as opposed to a straight-up neon or fuchsia shade, and then pairing those lips with minimal makeup on the face, eyes and cheeks.

Speak Louder could be perfect for something like that.

For a light whisper of semi-transparent color, like a creamy stain, I’ll just dab the tube on my lips. But when I want my lips to SPEAK LOUDER (sorry, couldn’t resist), I’ll apply a layer, blot with a tissue, and then slick on a second, intensifying layer.

mac speak louder lipstick


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Categories: MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Sandy B Lipstick

March 8th, 2012 by Karen 36 Comments

T-minus 961,218 seconds to spring and counting! 217…216…215…

That’s just a little more than 11 days from now, love! Here in the Northern Hemisphere, spring begins on March 20, but before I ask you to hand me that bottle of Zyrtec on my desk (ah-choo!), could I trouble you to pass me that perky, peachy pink tube of lipstick there instead?

mac sandy b

That, my friend, is someone I’d like you to meet. Her name is MAC Sandy B, and I think she, with her peachy pink pigment and golden shimmer, sure looks lovely worn with spring and summer shades like bronze, teal, gold, peach and brown.

Sandy B is just one of those shades that makes everything better. Seeing it on my lips always fills me with a little more hope and puts an extra spring in my step (I think it might even give my ponytails more bounce).

mac sandy b


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Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Club Eyeshadow

January 31st, 2012 by Karen 21 Comments

mac club eyeshadow (2)

Hmm… Clubbing used to be a lot less complicated.

The last time I went clubbing, let alone wore MAC Club Eyeshadow ($15) out to a club, was at least a year ago. And it’s funny — I used to be able to just roll out of the house around 10, get to the club by 11, and then dance until the wee hours in 4-inch heels, no problem. Sometimes, we’d even go out for fries afterward.

Now, though? Whole different story.

mac club eyeshadow (3)It seems like right around the time I hit 30, the prep work involved in staying out past 10 doubled.

Now, on those rare occasions when I do go out dancing, I try to carbo load the night before, take a power nap in the afternoon, slip some inserts into my heels (so my arches won’t hurt), and throw a Lara bar into my purse to eat on the way home (since my tum can’t handle late-night greasy food like it used to).

See what I mean? Complicated. 🙂

But one thing that hasn’t changed is my mad love for MAC Club…although nowadays I’m wearing it to the movies and grocery stores, and not out to clubs to go dancing (at least not often).

Club was one of the first colors I fell in love with at MAC, and I’m so glad we met. If I’d judged this nondescript reddish gray-brown book by its cover — by the way it looks in its pan — I might have never given it a chance.

And that would have been a shame.

On skin, I think MAC Club looks downright multidimensional, as if someone had pressed all of the colors of a peacock’s feather into a single eyeshadow. One minute, it’s a gunmetal gray with teal highlights; the next, a bluish chocolate brown with an iridescent green glow.

mac club eyeshadow (1)

And beyond Club’s dynamic personality, it also loves layers. I like that I can coax different things out of it, like green, by wearing it atop green pencils or cream shadows, and teal, by wearing it with — you guessed it! — teal.

Easy to dress up or down, sometimes I’ll layer it on top of black liner for a quick smokey eye, or, for a twist on a traditional cat eye, I’ll wet an angled brush like the MAC 266 with some Fix+, sweep it across the pan, and apply Club wet along my upper lash lines.
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Categories: Eyes, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Uniform Technakohl Liner

January 10th, 2012 by Karen 28 Comments

MAC Uniform Technakohl Liner

The day’s barely half over, and I’m already on my fifth cup of Pukka Love Tea.

I kid you not, it’s been one of those days… I’m fussy, can’t seem to focus and haven’t showered since last night, so my scalp has enough grease in it to fry a dozen eggs. Plus, I feel like a sausage today (even in my stretchy pants!), and to top everything off, Tabs has been treating me like a pariah.

Yup, one of those days…

I feel like just hitting my head against my desk, but I wonder, “What would Tim Gunn do?”

Ah, of course. That’s right. Tim would “make it work,” so I’ll try to do the same, and I have, hence the five cups of tea.

To make it official, though, I think I should put it in print, so here goes: “By the time I reach the bottom of this mug, I will be filled with lurve.”

LURVE!

On the plus side, at least I’m not possessed by a demon (yay!), I have all of my toes, and I don’t have serial killer eyes. Three very good things, and today I owe that last one to MAC Uniform Technakohl ($15).

A khaki eyeliner with golden shimmer, it fits my mood a lot of the time when other shades don’t. Understated. Not as flashy as black nor as blah as brown, it makes me feel classier when I swipe it along my lash and water lines.

How else could I describe it? Well, if a liner were able to capture Jennifer Aniston’s fashion sense, I think that liner would be Uniform.
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Categories: Eyes, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Cyprus Eyeshadow

January 4th, 2012 by Karen 27 Comments

nars cyprus eyeshadow (2)

Things of which one can never have enough…

  • Good friends
  • Cozy sweaters
  • See’s Candies (well…)
  • Come-hither jeans
  • Kitty hugs
  • Black shoes
  • Love notes
  • Power-nap eyeshadows

Power-nap eyeshadows are like soft white lightbulbs for your eyes — shades that instantly brighten up tired peepers after a late night or an insomnia attack.

Some people yearn to scale Mount Everest; I yearn to amass a collection of power-nap eyeshadows so vast that it would scare the hosts of Hoarders!

My latest power-nap love, NARS Cyprus Eyeshadow ($23), is a shimmery bronze with a golden whisper. The morning after a rough night, I apply one layer over my lids and mellow out the edges with a finger.

“Ah!” Instant relief. 🙂 And quicker than a shower and mani.

I’m also fond of using Cyprus as a base for bronzy looks using colors like the dark bronze shadow from NARS Star Sailor, a combo I could happily wear every day for weeks.

nars cyprus eyeshadow (1)

nars cyprus eyeshadow (3)
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Categories: Eyes, Makeup, NARS, Unsung Heroes Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Indian Summer Eyeshadow Duo

December 29th, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

nars indian summer (2)

NARS has a knack for neutral eyeshadows but likes ’em with a twist, like Star Sailor, which accompanied me on my quick holiday trip last weekend. Keeping us company on the open road was another dynamic neutral duo from NARS, the $33 Indian Summer Duo Eyeshadow, which happens to be the subject of today’s Unsung Heroes post.

Like both of the colors in Star Sailor, Indian Summer’s shadows keep a low profile until they get out of their pans; that’s when their powder shadows sing. In the official PR, the shades are described as a frosted champagne and a mustard seed, but I think they’re much more exciting than that.

How about this? — a shimmery golden beige that flashes silvery taupe, and a buttery golden brown satin?

Right? 🙂 Both shadows bring a subtle brightening effect to lids — not too much. Just enough that you can tell there’s something there.

Since these powders lean toward the warm end of the color temperature spectrum, I think they look particularly fetching on tans and olive-toned skin.

nars indian summer (1)

nars indian summer (3)
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Categories: Makeup, NARS, Unsung Heroes Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Cairo Eyeshadow

December 28th, 2011 by Karen 10 Comments

nars cairo eyeshadow (3)

So. Majorly. Jealous. You’re so lucky you can pull off every shade of taupe. Not fair!

I love taupe…especially taupe eyeshadows, but for me it can be a tough color to wear. On my warm skin tone, the wrong taupe can leave my lids looking muddy or bruised.

Thank goodness for NARS Cairo ($23) — one of the prettiest, most wearable taupes I’ve found. There it was, sitting like purplish pirate treasure on a shelf during one of Sephora’s Friends & Family sales a while back. I brought it home, and I’ve been reaching for it on a regular basis ever since.

NARS characterizes it as a shimmery champagne rose (isn’t that a pretty description?). I’ve seen it grace a few different lids, and it hasn’t looked the same way twice. I think that’s because it’s complex, and the color varies based on the wearer’s skin temperature (warm/cold) and tone. On one lass it might look like a beige taupe, on another, more of a rosy shade. On me, I think it looks like a violet taupe with a silvery sheen, and sometimes I swear I also see flashes of gold in it.

Super pretty! — and easy to wear, too. It’s one of the products I turn to when I want fresh-looking, dewy eyes.

nars cairo eyeshadow (1)
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Categories: Makeup, NARS, Unsung Heroes Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Star Sailor Duo Eyeshadow

December 26th, 2011 by Karen 29 Comments

nars star sailor (5)

I have to say, for a long, long time I didn’t think much of NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Star Sailor ($33), and I sailed past it many times without giving it as much as a sneaky side-eye glance.

Then, one day, the planets and stars were aligned just right, and I decided to see what swatches of its two shadows would look like on my skin.

Over the moon! — that’s how I felt when the first shade, a shimmery yellow gold, and the second, a shimmery golden bronze, blossomed before me, like a nebula under the watchful eye of the Hubble Space Telescope…

Sorry, I’m a sucker for a good (or middling) space reference. 🙂

If you happen to like neutrals with an interstellar kick, give Star Sailor a try, especially if you’re looking to upgrade from basic browns and beige. The shimmery yellow gold shade on the left side of the duo reminds me of a slightly warmer MAC Gorgeous Gold; the shimmery bronze on the right, with its golden undertones, brings to mind another one of my favorite shades, MAC Powersurge Eye Kohl eyeliner, except in eyeshadow form.

Worn together or apart, I like how much attention both shadows draw. They’re noticeable, but stop well short of shouting, “HEY! CHECK OUT MY EYES!”

nars star sailor (4)

nars star sailor (3)

nars star sailor (2)
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Categories: Makeup, NARS, Unsung Heroes Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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